Although I am fairly new to encoding music, I read all the advice on Hydrogenaudio and Übernet and have a pretty good idea on how I want to encode my CD's. After reading the advice and some experimenting I decided to go with:

- EAC 0.9 beta 4- LAME 3.97 alpha 10 (not the recommended version on Hydrogen, but it works swift and clean each time. Sorry JohnV...)- VBR preset standard, which levels out at a bitrate of around 192.(for this I used the command line parameter %s %d --preset standard, can anybody tell me if this is correct? Because I found some different examples around. I ended up going with the examples from the Lame project site http://lame.sourceforge.net/doc/html/presets.html )

Now, what I would expect from the EAC software is that additional fields would be grayed out when using the command line option, but this is not the case. And there are some options that require a value that confuses me. The one that specifically confuses me is the option Bitrate, right under the command line box. When I don't use a Lame preset I obviously have to set the desired bitrate for the codec here, but when I use a command line preset I still wants me to choose a value here, and it also does seem to have an effect.

I read the following thread which explains how it should workhttp://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php? act=ST&f=1&t=6671&st=25#entry67461but it it doesn't make sense to me that a VBR preset should have a minimum bitrate.

When I choose VBR 192 from the dropdown list, the preset doesn't drop below a 192 bitrate. Not really what I expect with the preset standard, only the preset extreme is said to not drop below 192. To have the preset standard drop below 192 I have to set it to for instance VBR 96, which is the lowest value I can choose for.I use the option external screen for codec, and I can clearly see the difference between the two bitrate options. With 192 it uses 192 and all the bitrate steps above, and with 96 it also uses all the steps below 192 up until 96. So no 64, no 32 and no 0 bitrates sequences for silences, which TMHO doesn't make sense for a VBR preset. I tried the same command line with audiograbber (which when using command line grays out most other options, and has an option user defined in the dropdown list), and it reacts different from EAC, giving a smaller file size of some Mb's. I also tried with the recommended Lame 3.90, but the result is the same.

Can anybody tell me what this option does? It does looks like it works as a minimum bitrate option, just like the thread mentioned above says, but I can't find it documented anywhere. The radio button directly under there on the right allowing for HIGH or LOW Quality also doesn't make any sense to me. Does this have any influence on the results?

Secondly, the tab LAME DLL under compression options confuses me. Again, a preset is said to have its own specific tweaks inside the codec thus giving the best results and not needing any other settings; for example Joint Stereo is a standard option in the presets, but other options can be selected here.Further options are (again) Quality, Maximum VBR Bitrate and the option to choose between VBR Quality and VBR Average Bitrate with an additional value setting.

Seeing that the Bitrate field I mentioned above does seem to have an effect, makes me wonder if these settings have an effect on the end results. And if they do.... WHY?? It doesn't make any sense to me that a command line preset needs additional settings from the encoding software. I read several threads on Hydrogenaudio where it is assured that a preset with additional (command line) settings is unnecessary and can even negatively influence the tweaks from a preset.

Could any body shed some light on this for me? I guess to sum my questions up, they are:1 - The setting in the Bitrate field on the tab External Compression seems to have an effect on the end result. What does it do? And more importantly; why influence a Command Line Preset?2 - Do the settings on the tab LAME DLL under compression options have an additional effect on the end result? And again, if so; why?3 - Does anybody know if these effects have been documented anywhere? I read the EAC Bible from the Coaster Factory, and several other pages on EAC, but couldn't find anything about the above results.

The thing is, I prefer to go with the raw presets instead of using the Quality Level parameters.

QUOTE (shadowking @ May 6 2005, 02:34 AM)

Bitrate option is purely cosmetic here.

With Parameter passing scheme = 'Lame Mp3 Encoder', the setting doesn't seem to be cosmetic, but rather working as a minimum bitrate parameter.

QUOTE (HisInfernalMajesty @ May 6 2005, 03:42 AM)

What I do is use the "User defined encoder" and for the additional command line options is use "--preset standard %s %d"

QUOTE (Martin H @ May 6 2005, 04:03 AM)

And thats why it is generally recommended to use "User defined encoder" as "Parameter passing scheme". -Martin.

I Indeed had the "Parameter passing scheme" set to "LAME MP3 Encoder". Don't know why, guess 'cause with this scheme I found some Variable Bitrate values under the Bitrate dropdown list.I'm going with your advices and run some tests with the scheme set to User Defined. Thanks a lot, I'll let you know what the verdict will be....

QUOTE (HisInfernalMajesty @ May 6 2005, 03:42 AM)

and set it to 224... as far as I can tell.. it hasn't changed the encode any like it would be if set to "LAME MP3 Encoder"

And set it to 224? Does this value still influence the end result? And why go with 224? Is there a reason for that?

All in all I must say that even though EAC is widely said to be the best encoder, it isn't always as easy to use and/or understand. When using Command Line Parameters, like presets or a complete custom line, I want to be straight out sure that no other options intervene.

The thing is, I prefer to go with the raw presets instead of using the Quality Level parameters.

There is no reason, they are equivalent.

QUOTE (Martin H @ May 6 2005, 05:50 AM)

If you select "User defined encoder" then it dosent matter what the bitrate dropdown box is set to. When using that passing scheme, then the bitrate dropdownbox and the high/low quality buttons arent used at all, so just leave them at whatever, since its just the entered commandline thats passed to the lame encoder and nothing else. -Martin.

Just to be precise, it does not affect the encoding, but it's used to compute the displayed compressed track size. So you should prolly set it to 192 when using preset standard to get somewhat accurate results.

Therefore, -V2 <-> --preset standard and can't be used to call the --preset extreme command.

Hi Guruboolez,

In reaction to your post a quote from my previous post.

Start quoteStill remains the question: Does using -V2 give you the same advantages in tweaks as the --preset standard used to give? Because that's actually why I prefer(-red) to go with the presets.

The thing is; I want to encode my music in the best though reasonably simple way. I don't have the ambition to become an expert in encoding music, and the presets seemed to be the simplest way, giving the best results. But maybe presets are not the way to go anyway after reading this post http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ST&f=16&t=3594# by Dibrom. Although I don't know whether this info has become outdated and whether this only goes for the presets or for VBR in general.End quote

Do you know if the quality settings have similar tweaks as to what the presets were said to have?

Still remains the question: Does using -V2 give you the same advantages in tweaks as the --preset standard used to give? Because that's actually why I prefer(-red) to go with the presets.

at first, I've found the -V switches quite confusing too. So if it makes you feel more comfortable you can just use --preset standard and you'll be fine. However, the fancy way of --preset standard is -V2. The results will be identical since it's mapped to the exact same setting...so use whatever you like

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--alt-presets are there for a reason! These other switches DO NOT work better than it, trust me on this.LAME + Joint Stereo doesn't destroy 'Stereo'